.IO域名的崛起，对话迈克·卡森
在今天的DomainSherpa节目中，我将采访一家专注于.IO、.LY和.ME顶级域名的抢注服务的创始人。为什么我认为作为投资者的你值得花时间了解？因为我花1,655美元买了一个.IO域名，30天后以6,000美元的价格转手。敬请关注。
在进入今天的节目前，有三条赞助商信息。
首先，如果你拥有一个很棒的域名，但当人们访问时却没有任何内容可展示，你就会错失潜在的广告收入、潜在客户和合作机会。NicheWebsites.com可以快速为你建站，并提供适合任何需求的价格选项——正如他们的标语所说，他们不仅建网站，更是在建立业务。NicheWebsites.com。
其次，如果你正在购买或出售域名或投资组合，并想对其进行估价，请访问Estibot.com。就像你会访问Zillow.com估算房价一样，Estibot.com提供关键的重要统计数据，让你能基于数据做出明智的决策。
最后，无论你是在购买、出售、经纪还是融资一个域名，你都需要一家拥有适当许可、担保、保险和审计的托管公司。这家公司就是Escrow.com，他们自1999年以来一直从事这项业务。Escrow.com——关乎信任。
迈克尔·赛格：大家好。我是迈克尔·赛格，DomainSherpa.com的创办人——在这里你可以直接向专家学习如何成为成功的域名投资者或企业家。我记不清是如何偶然发现我们今天要了解的这项抢注服务的，但我花1655美元买了一个域名，我原以为它在主要面向技术的市场Flippa.com上会卖得不错。
这个域名是PHP.io，如果你对编程有所了解，就会知道PHP是互联网上迄今为止最常见的服务器端语言。它被Facebook、WordPress、亚马逊等使用，所以毫不意外，我在30天内以6000美元的价格转手了这个域名，扣除经纪人费用后，盈利约3450美元，是我初始投资的200%。
我打算透露我的秘诀给你，尽管这样做让我有点痛苦，因为当你开始使用这项服务后，我可能再也无法从中捡到便宜了。今天我很高兴欢迎Park.io的创始人迈克·卡森。欢迎来到节目，迈克。
迈克·卡森：谢谢。谢谢你邀请我。
迈克尔：迈克，我会请你共享屏幕，带我们了解Park.io服务，但首先我想多了解一下Park.io的背景。你为什么创建Park.io？
迈克：嗯，我一直对技术和推出网站很感兴趣，所以我想弄一些.IO域名，并且对此非常上心。我一直盯着，甚至写了个脚本检查，但总有人比我快，抢走了我想要的域名。这非常令人沮丧，所以我做的就是去更深入地了解它。我想搞清楚，然后我弄明白了更多细节，比如它们什么时候删除、什么时间点删除、哪些会删除，然后我就投入了这件事。
我开始围绕它写脚本，竞争也变得更激烈了。我发现还有另外几个人也在做同样的事，所以我们互相竞争，我的脚本不断改进，改进到能够击败所有人。那时，我想我不妨把这个开放出来，因为当时没有其他的.IO预订服务，所以我决定开放它。
迈克尔：对。那么，为什么是.IO？首先，对于不知道它的人来说，.IO是什么？
迈克：.IO我猜代表印度洋，但对于黑客来说，它是输入输出（Input-Output）。我的意思是，这就是它的意义所在。它是.IO。我们这些黑客把它看作是输入输出。很多科技公司，比如我经常看Hacker News，上面很多新上线的网站，很多其他正在推出网站的计算机程序员都在用.IO。所以，是的，它代表印度洋，我想是由英国政府管理的，但没错，它就是输入输出。
迈克尔：好的，所以它是印度洋及其属地的国家代码顶级域。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：黑客们喜欢它，你提到了Hacker News，我以前经常在News.Ycombinator.com上阅读Hacker News。当你说黑客时，你如何用一句话描述黑客？
迈克：一句话。嗯，黑客就是喜欢弄清楚事情并构建东西的人。我就是这么看的。
迈克尔：通过编程构建东西，对吧，比如通过网站提供的服务或产品。
迈克：通常是这样，但不一定。我的意思是也包括电子设备。有电子黑客或其他类型的。
迈克尔：好的，很好。很多黑客看到.IO，多年来，他们逐渐对它产生了 affinity。他们看到很多黑客朋友在用.IO，所以他们也想要一个.IO。
迈克：是的，现在它背后有了意义。现在.IO有了一种文化底蕴。当你看到一个.IO域名时，至少我和其他人是这么认为的，我们在访问之前就对它有了更多了解，我认为.IO的很多价值也正来源于此，来源于它背后的这股势头和文化。
迈克尔：嗯，这是个很好的观点，这种势头并非由新推出的顶级域（比如新推出的数百个顶级域）创造的。这是一个已经存在了一段时间的域名。顺便问一下，你对所有这些新的顶级域怎么看，比如将于2015年推出的.APP、.STORE、.WEB——你能想到的？
迈克：是啊，我真的不知道。我个人认为，它们需要取得成功。如果有成功的公司建立在这些域名上，人们有了榜样，或者围绕这个顶级域开始形成一种文化，那么我认为人们就会因此而倾向于它。这就是为什么我认为.IO域名会这样。它背后有完整的文化，因此有价值。我认为如果它们能做到这一点，而这需要人们在这些顶级域上构建产品来引领，那么它们就会因此获得价值。这是我的看法，但我了解不多。我的意思是，我进入域名领域才一年左右。
迈克尔：才一年？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：那是你刚开始写这个脚本的时候，在你把它商业化并提供给别人之前。你做这个才一年左右。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：你什么时候推出Park.io服务的？
迈克：就在去年六月，去年六月底。
迈克尔：2014年6月。哇，好的。你试图为人们抢注哪些顶级域？
迈克：目前，在Park.io上，我们做.IO、.LY和.ME。
迈克尔：好的，.LY是列支敦士登的国家代码顶级域，我想，或者是利比亚。
迈克：利比亚。
迈克尔：利比亚。而.ME是另一个国家的国家代码顶级域。
迈克：黑山，是的。
迈克尔：对。那么，为什么选择国家代码顶级域？是什么驱使你选择这三个来首次推出服务？
迈克：我的意思是，它们基本上都围绕着文化。所以，.IO有点像输入输出。我们有点把这个顶级域的含义改成了输入输出，而.LY被用于域名黑客。例如，Bold.ly 或 Local.ly 卖了十万美元左右。所以，你可以创建这些很酷的域名 hack，而利比亚本身并不像你能用它创造的hack那样重要，.ME也是如此。我想这只是我感兴趣的东西，因为你可以用这些名字创造hack。
而且，当时也没有针对.LY或.IO的预订服务，所以我创建它是为了提供这项服务。
迈克尔：酷。那么，如果我现在去Park.io，想为某个.IO域名创建预订，我们待会会看到具体如何操作，你的服务收费多少？
迈克：嗯，下订单不收费，只有你拿到域名才收费。所以，如果你为一个域名提交预订，我们为你抢到了这个域名，而你是唯一提交预订的人，费用是99美元。如果另一个人也提交了预订，那么它就会进入为期十天的公开拍卖。
迈克尔：为期十天的公开拍卖，任何注册了Park.io的人都可以参与竞拍。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。明白了。我看到如果我是唯一看到这个域名进入拍卖并出价的人，价格是99美元。这对你来说利润不高，因为如果我去Nic.io看.IO，.IO的注册局，注册一个.IO域名要花我60英镑，在美国，大约是90美元。
迈克：是的，如果只有一个人，利润很小，但大部分利润来自拍卖。
迈克尔：对，所以基本上，如果有一个或多个竞拍者，你会去抢注这个域名，然后你以常规注册费拿到它，然后开放给任何想竞拍的人。市场价值届时将被决定。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：明白了。好的。通过你的服务，你在拍卖中卖出的最贵的域名是哪个，你的服务能够快速抢到然后卖出？
迈克：是SMTP.io。有几个人。我猜人们在关注。我们所做的——嗯，当我说我们，我只是指我自己。我一直这么做。我不知道。一旦你成为一个网站，你开始称自己为我们，但无论如何。当Park.io拿到一个域名时，我们会更改DNS，重定向到Park.io。例如，SMTP.io。当我们拿到它时，我们重定向到拍卖页面，很多人就是这样发现Park.io的。他们看着SMTP.io，因为他们想在它删除时注册，当我们拿到它时，他们看到了，所以他们就去了拍卖页面开始竞拍。
有好几家公司想要SMTP.io，最后好像是SendGrid以6,385美元左右的价格拿下了它。
迈克尔：SMTP是一个技术缩写。它代表什么？
迈克：问得好。
迈克尔：加油，迈克。你可以的。
迈克：某种邮件协议。
迈克尔：邮件传输协议（Simple Mail Transfer Protocol）。我也不知道S代表什么，但如果你设置过你的iPhone，想连接到你的邮件服务器，你需要输入pop服务器或SMTP服务器，一些技术性的东西。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，有些公司真的很想要它，而SendGrid，一家大型软件即服务提供商，实际上拿下了它。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：不错。所以，你实际上是自己写了这个脚本。你不仅仅是有这个想法的人。嘿，没有抢注服务。我要开始找人雇佣程序员来构建它。你既是企业主，又是程序员。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：哇。
迈克：是的，我进入这个领域的全部原因就是我对这一切如何运作感兴趣，并想找出在域名删除瞬间获取它的最有效方法。我认为真正能做到某事的唯一方法就是那样。这只是我的看法，但我觉得如果我雇佣一个程序员，他们不会有那么大的热情把它做得这么好。我为这个脚本感到自豪，因为它运行得非常好。所以，前六个月，我从六月推出到十二月，我们达到了百分之百的成功率。百分之百完美。在Park.io上预订的每一个.IO域名，这是几百个订单，我们都拿到了。没人能打败我们。
迈克尔：哇。
迈克：它变得这么好的原因是我真的非常感兴趣，而且这很有竞争性。之前，几个月前，时不时有人能打败我。
迈克尔：是的，我可以作证。我想我通过你的服务购买了四五个域名，每一个都被抢到了。大多数情况下，我是唯一的竞拍者，这大概不能说明我的投资技巧有多好，但其中一些你抢到的域名确实进入了拍卖，我以更高的价格赢得了它们。所以，是的，我可以作证。你发现你的大多数客户，Park.io的注册用户，是投资者吗？还是你发现很多终端用户发现了.IO，很多黑客发现了.IO，并意识到Park.io是抢注那些过期域名的最佳服务商？
迈克：我想主要是域名投资者。他们是常规用户，因为老实说，这是一种获得折扣域名并高价卖出的方式。我知道很多用户甚至以99美元拿到域名，然后以几千美元卖出。但偶尔，就像我说的，我会把域名重定向到Park.io，所以一些寻找特定域名的终端用户会通过这种方式找到Park.io。
迈克尔：是的。你会跟踪你在Drop.io（指Park.io服务）抢到的域名吗？因为投资者或用户想付费让你抢注，然后跟踪他们看看后来卖了多少钱？
迈克：我的意思是我活跃在Flippa上，所以我经常关注那里，我也和一些用户保持联系，他们会告诉我。实际上，在博客上我发布了很多关于人们成功转手域名的故事。
迈克尔：酷。好的.IO域名在Flippa上通常能卖到什么范围？
迈克：嗯，它在增长。我的意思是，就在一年前，Flippa上还没有多少.IO域名，现在变得相当多了，但我仍然认为有很大的增长潜力。我认为现在Flippa上最高的能卖到——我记得SEO.io卖了一万一千美元。但如果你看看.IO域名的一些销售历史，有几个卖了三四万美元，但大多数在五千到一万美元之间。
迈克尔：所以，SEO.io其实是我的，但我不是通过你的服务买的。它们 definitely 在升温。所以，从注册费到一万美元，你会说这是目前.IO域名的范围。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：对于好的.IO域名，不是像CoffeeMug.io这样的。那种在Flippa上卖不出去，对吧？
迈克：是的。看起来是这样。我猜是对于现在愿意出售的人来说。如果你想持有，我打赌以后能卖更多，但现在卖出的价格大概在这个范围。
迈克尔：是的。那.LY和.ME域名呢？你觉得它们也会升温，在Flippa上卖到几千美元吗？
迈克：.LY definitely 有很多兴趣。我不认为它们现在有.IO那样的热度，但它们仍然卖得不错。我看到很多，我个人也卖了一些相当不错的。但.ME我没有看到像.LY和.IO那样的兴趣，也许是因为我没有那么多好的，或者我没看到那么多好的在Flippa上卖出，但我现在就是没看到像其他两个那样的兴趣。
迈克尔：你提到黑客对.IO感兴趣。是你看到他们在支付.IO和.LY的零售市场价格吗？那些想把它们发展成业务的人。
迈克：是的。是的，我想是的。很多人看到了它背后的文化，所以他们想在那个文化背景下推出他们的产品。
迈克尔：酷。好的，我们开始吧。切换到对话，开始屏幕共享，然后我会在你带我们了解Park.io服务时进行屏幕录制。
迈克：好的，当然，听起来不错。你能看到吗？
迈克尔：我能。是的，完美。
迈克：好的。那么，是的，当你来到Park.io，我们会显示未来一周将要删除的域名列表。
迈克尔：嘿，迈克，在我们进入之前，让我澄清一下地址栏里的URL是Park.io.dev。那是你的开发服务器。如果人们去Park.io，他们会看到你的主页，描述服务。如果他们想访问应用程序，是在App.Park.io。所以，这是两个URL。Park.io 和 App.Park.io。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。当有人去那里时，无论他们是否登录，他们在应用程序主页上看到的就是这个。
迈克：是的，它显示未来一周将要删除的域名列表，从今晚即将删除的域名开始。然后有不同的标签页，从.IO域名开始，但你可以切换到.LY或.ME。所以，如果你想买一个域名，只需点击它。
迈克尔：好了。刚才我为你紧张了一下。
迈克：有一些开发中的东西。所以，首先，你必须注册，只需创建用户名和密码，然后同意我们的服务条款。你应该点击阅读。
迈克尔：我在那里同意什么，迈克？只是说我会买我说要买的东西之类的？
迈克：是的。是的，我猜。
迈克尔：好的，去阅读服务条款吧。然后，当你来到这里，找到一个你想买的域名，点击它或点击查看。
迈克：是的，然后你点击预订域名。你必须输入信用卡。现在，只有我们为你拿到域名你才会被收费，但你必须输入它以确保域名的预订。所以，你在这里输入名字、电子邮件地址，这只是一个测试卡号。然后你只需点击预订域名，然后它就进入你的订单。所以，它在那里了，然后当你登录后，你可以点击上面的订单标签查看你的订单状态。在这里你可以查看订单。
迈克尔：这个域名什么时候实际删除，你的脚本会尝试抢注它？
迈克：嗯，这是我的开发服务，所以这个可能已经被续费了，但它本应在今天删除。大概今天。
迈克尔：明白了。
迈克：所以，你今晚或明天会查看我们是否为你拿到了它。
迈克尔：好的，你的系统如果抢到了也会发邮件。
迈克：是的，一旦我们更新订单，它会发送邮件。
迈克尔：有没有办法让我知道是否已经有别人预订了某个域名，迈克？
迈克：不，没有。
迈克尔：你为什么这么做？
迈克：实际上我不知道。我猜就是这样。是的，我不知道。
迈克尔：在某个时刻你 decided 嘿，你需要对这些域名有好想法，如果你发现不了好的，那么别人应该受益，不一定非要通过拍卖。
迈克：我想我的一个担忧可能是，有人会看到一个即将删除的域名，如果没有看到其他预订，但他们想要，他们可能不会自己去预订并得到它。
迈克尔：哦，对。好的。明白了，让我们再次点击顶部的域名链接。所以，基本上有子标签，允许你查看接下来，我想你说的是十天，每个标签上将要删除的域名。
迈克：是的，所以你可以在这里翻页，查看未来一周所有将要删除的不同域名。
迈克尔：好的。看看这个页面，2月2日将要删除的.IO域名。你认为其中哪一个，这些在采访播出时应该已经删除了，但你认为这些域名中哪一个在Flippa上会卖得好，能卖出超过99美元的价格（假设只有一个人出价）？
迈克：嗯，我个人认为，Sonic听起来不错。Intuitive可能听起来不错，但我的意思是这背后没有科学依据。这只是基于我销售.IO域名的经验，以及看到推出的产品。这与它的品牌潜力有关，以及它的发音和背后的含义。
迈克尔：所以，你实际上会购买.IO扩展下的品牌性域名，而我在Flippa上卖出的几个域名是像SEO（搜索引擎优化）或PHP（软件语言）这样的简短描述性域名。你推荐一种投资方式而不是另一种吗？因为我知道你自己也做了一些投资？
迈克：嗯，就像我说的，我对这一切还算新手，但我卖了很多.IO域名，也做了很多与.IO域名相关的事情，我 actually 写了一个评估.IO域名的程序，我认为它效果相当好。我计划把它作为Park.io的一项服务推出，这样你可以输入一个.IO域名，它会进行评估，并且是专门针对.IO的。我认为它比我见过的任何其他互联网服务对.IO域名的评估都更准确。
迈克尔：是的，有趣。
迈克：我自己在定价一个待售域名或考虑购买一个域名时，也会用它来看看。
迈克尔：好的，我需要访问那个脚本，迈克，所以是的，我们把它弄上来。
迈克：好的。
迈克尔：好的，那是域名部分。我们讨论了订单部分。拍卖部分是什么？
迈克：是的，这里是当有超过一个人预订域名时，域名会进入的地方，然后它们会进行为期十天的公开拍卖，任何人都可以竞拍。所以，有一个拍卖列表。如果你去Park.io网站，你会看到当前拍卖的列表。如果你注册了我们的电子邮件通讯，每周你会收到一封包含当前进行中拍卖的邮件。
迈克尔：明白了。我 actually 很喜欢你的通讯，迈克，但我不认为它们每周都来。那是你手动发送的通讯，还是自动每周发送的？
迈克：是自动发送的。
迈克尔：好的，那我得检查一下我的垃圾邮件文件夹了。那么，这是一个拍卖示例。如果我点击它，我可以看到当前出价，可以看到出价次数，然后我自己也可以出价。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：这是一个简洁、简单的系统。我很喜欢你把它构建得如此简单，它在我的手机上看起来和操作起来会和网站上一样。很多时候，网站充斥着各种东西，然后你得去移动版才能获得简洁性，但你在这方面做得很好。
迈克：谢谢。
迈克尔：我注意到在NameJet和其他服务上，你 actually 必须在拍卖中出价才能参与后续的私人拍卖。你为什么决定如果有多于一个出价就把它做成公开拍卖？
迈克：这些都是很好的问题，但我对很多问题都没有很好的答案，因为我只是把它上线了。推出一个网站背后的很多想法是，你先把能用的东西放上去，然后根据反馈和情况，你可以改变东西，所以我就这样把它放上去了，到目前为止似乎运作得还可以。
迈克尔：好的，很好。如果有人注册了你的服务，成为客户，购买了域名，并给你反馈，提供反馈的最佳方式是什么？
迈克：嗯，你可以发邮件到[email protected] 或 [email protected]。
迈克尔：从我的互动中，我注意到所有支持都是你做的。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：实际上非常快。
迈克：谢谢。
迈克尔：对于一个有另一份工作的人来说，我正要问你这个。我想问你的最后一件事是，一旦我在你的服务上赢得一个域名，我如何设置域名服务器、设置转发、获取授权码——这些是投资者和企业家通常需要访问和使用域名所需的东西？
迈克：是的，一旦你成功获得一个域名，你可以去订单标签，订单现在会显示为绿色，表示你已拥有它，上面会有支付日期和总额。当你点击查看时，里面会有更新DNS的不同选项。所以，你可以更新域名服务器。还有一些其他选项。很多都是真正面向域名投资者的，比如如果你想验证，可以设置TXT记录，或者可以设置URL重定向。还有，如果你想转移到其他注册商，可以获取转移授权码。
迈克尔：太好了。如果我不想转移，因为你的服务如此简单易用，我 actually 可以续费域名并保留在Park.io上吗？
迈克：是的，我们会提供这个功能。就像我说的，我们六月才推出，所以这个需求还没真正出现。再过五六个月才会出现，但我会提供一些选项。
迈克尔：太好了。知道定价会是多少吗？如果抢注花了我99美元，续费会是多少？
迈克：我还不确定。我还得弄清楚，但不会比那更高。
迈克尔：好的。如果我买了一个域名，然后想把它转让给新所有者，比方说我卖掉了它，有没有办法在Park.io上操作？
迈克：是的，现在你可以直接给我发邮件，我可以处理。
迈克尔：[email protected]。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：太棒了，我这么做的时候非常容易，所以我很感激。我猜如果有足够多的人要求，你会创建一个方法来做到这一点。
迈克：是的。是的，基本上。
迈克尔：非常酷。好的，网站上还有什么你觉得我们应该看看的吗？
迈克：我想没有了。博客那里有些有趣的故事。还有一点要指出，电子邮件通讯。你需要去Park.io网页，滚动到底部，在这里输入你的电子邮件，这将注册每周发布的通讯。它包含拍卖更新以及博客的不同更新。
今天的节目有三个赞助商的简短信息：
首先，你是否厌倦了在购买或续费域名时被追加销售和交叉销售？那么试试这家从头开始构建的全新注册商吧，它拥有漂亮的界面、有竞争力的价格和全天候支持。Uniregistry.com会给你带来惊喜和愉悦。正确的域名可以改变你的人生：Uniregistry.com。
其次，如果你是一位域名投资者，难道你不需要具备域名技术知识和行业经验的专业法律服务吗？这就是为什么你需要Wiley Rein律师事务所的David Weslow。如果你看过David在DomainSherpa的采访，你就知道他能清晰地解释问题，帮助你处理买卖协议、域名被盗案件、UDRP诉讼，甚至是网站条款和条件。David Weslow是处理互联网法律问题的首选律师。详情请访问DavidWeslow.com。
最后，如果你正在从私人一方购买域名，并想知道他们还拥有什么，DomainIQ.com是你应该使用的工具。查看他们的整个投资组合，按Estibot价值筛选，成为一个更好的投资者。每月49.95美元250次查询。请访问DomainIQ.com/portfolio了解更多信息。
迈克尔：酷。好的，我会回去重新订阅，因为我以为以前订阅过，但后来没有定期收到。
迈克：好的。
迈克尔：好的，你可以关闭屏幕共享了，这样我就能再次看到你。太棒了。好的，我们浏览了服务和细节，所以大家都了解了它是如何运作的。迈克，在我们做教程之前你提到过，你 actually 想自己抢注.IO域名并使用它们，正是通过优化脚本，你 decided 嘿，我也可以把它提供给其他人。在过去一年多的时间里，通过写这个脚本，你抢注了多少.IO域名？
迈克：我不知道。几百个。
迈克尔：几百个？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：哇。你卖掉了大部分，还是怎么处理它们？
迈克：我还有很多。我也卖了很多。是的，我一边进行一边卖，但，是的，这很有趣。这很有意思，因为它刚开始只是个爱好，现在也算是个爱好，但突然之间，在写脚本的几个月内，我有点垄断了市场，比如删除的.IO域名，到了人们开始抱怨他们认为这不公平的程度。他们向注册局投诉，说他们认为这不公平，好像涉及作弊什么的，但我的意思是，一切都是先到先得。只是脚本设计得非常快。但无论如何，这最终促使Nic.io推出了他们自己的预订服务。
迈克尔：让我问问你这个。Nic.io是.IO顶级域的注册局。你可以去那里看他们的网站，看到他们最近刚刚提供了一项抢注服务。我相信这项服务的运作方式，迈克，是我可以付50美元。假设我喜欢SMTP.io，就是SendGrid刚刚通过你的服务以六千美元拿下的域名。假设我非常喜欢它，想在它过期时成为第一个排队的人，想抢到它。我可以注册你的服务。嗯，不，我甚至不能注册你的服务去抢它，因为你的服务只针对未来十天内确定会过期的域名。
但如果我去Nic.io，我可以付50美元，他们会监控它，当它过期时我会是第一个排队的，但它可能永远不会过期。你的理解也是这样吗？
迈克：是的，你必须预付60英镑。
迈克尔：60英镑。
迈克：是的，那是为期两年的预订，你可能永远得不到它，但你必须付费。
迈克尔：是的，这似乎真的很高。60英镑。90美元买一个可能永远不会过期的域名。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：至少在Pool.com，在我意识到外面有整个投资世界之前，我就从那里抢注域名，只是为了自己的创业活动，至少在那里我可以转移到另一个域名，如果没抢到，我可以用它做别的。我相信它也有时间限制，但，是的，这很有趣。所以，他们创建了那个服务。我猜如果一个域名过期了，我在Nic.io预订了，因为他们掌控着整个游戏，他们很可能会打败你的抢注服务。
迈克：是的，这是 guaranteed 的。这很有趣，因为这刚发生，所以我不得不考虑怎么做，所以我在做的就是通过他们的服务自己预订，然后通过Park.io放出，或者只是常规删除的订单，它们仍然可以以同样的方式被预订。
迈克尔：他们会在Nic.io接受多个预订吗，就像你在Park.io做的那样？
迈克：不会。
迈克尔：不，只有一个。
迈克：先到先得，是的。
迈克尔：明白了。好的。所以，你预订了大量很棒的域名。actually 我发现你在Flippa上，出售域名，因为我在跟踪.IO域名，因为我在卖一些.IO域名，然后我 realized 嘿，这就是我一直邮件往来的那个人。你在Flippa上有大量待售的.IO域名，人们可以去那里看你的个人资料。是对公众开放的。
你有很多两字母的.IO域名。你 generally 认为它们值多少钱？
迈克：嗯，ES.io最近卖了，去年，三万美元，但我的意思是，我个人，不会以低于两千美元的价格卖掉任何一个，那是对于字母组合最差的那些。但我的意思是，我收集它们。我很喜欢它们。对我来说，它们就是如此之短。它是一个两字母的顶级域加上两个字母，所以总共四个字符，和最短的.COM一样短。我不知道。
迈克尔：你收集它们很有趣，因为它们不像.COM那样便宜收集，对吧？.COM，你每年只需支付十美元左右，而.IO，最便宜的注册商之一收费是每年36美元。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：而Nic.io，如果你直接在他们那里注册，会收你每年90美元。我知道他们有批量折扣，但仍然相当贵。
迈克：是的，但我的意思是它们会弥补这一点。.IO的销售相当不错。尽管它们贵，但很容易就能收回成本。
迈克尔：是的。所以，你说.IO市场正在升温。你认为它有降温的潜力吗？你认为黑客们会不会在某天厌倦.IO，不再使用它们？
迈克：嗯，我的意思是任何事情都可能发生。互联网上事物会变化，所以我不认为这是会快速变化的事情，所以我想事先会有一些警告信号。现在它正在上升，所以我认为趋势会继续上升，直到它开始下降，但我想事先会有警告信号。但，是的，事物会变化。谁知道互联网将来会变成什么样？
迈克尔：你认为警告信号之一会是什么？
迈克：嗯，有几个出现在我脑海里。我的意思是，在Hacker News上，如果你不再看到.IO服务那么频繁地出现在那里，如果频率下降，或者在Flippa上，如果销售额下降，甚至只是个人感受，如果你开始收到更少的报价等等。所以，我想事先会有足够的警告信号，而且我不认为这会是一夜之间发生的事情。可能要花几年时间才会发生。
迈克尔：是的。你现在还用你自己的服务来抢注和购买.IO域名吗？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：你用。如果你在和我竞价，而我在系统上，你认为这有利益冲突吗？
迈克：嗯，我们不竞价。我只有当有一个我 really 想要的域名时才会这么做，而且我不会把它列在Park.io上，因为这在最开始就出现了，当我推出它时，我 decided 我不会在自己拍卖中竞价。所以，我不在Park.io的拍卖中竞价，但如果有一个我 really 想要的域名，我就不会把它列在Park.io上。
迈克尔：明白了。好的。我在查看ICANN认证的注册商列表，因为我想弄清楚Park.io是不是认证注册商，但实际上对于国家代码顶级域，你不需要获得ICANN的认证。是这样吗？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的，所以当你不必处理ICANN的官僚机构时，这是经营企业的一个好方法。
迈克：是的。是的，我猜是这样。我研究过ICANN认证，因为我想过进入.COM或其他领域，但我不知道。我现在只想坚持做我感兴趣的事情。
迈克尔：是的。嘿，迈克，我是不可能想出像Park.io这样的主意，然后去Elance或Freelancer.com上尝试雇人编程来实现你所做的一切。你编写了脚本，然后不断优化，真正磨练到尽可能快速和高效，这是Park.io系统所独有的。你如何在编程方面获得如此多的经验？是什么让你能够创建这项服务？
迈克：嗯，我的意思是，我一直对编程感兴趣。我从小就开始编程，所以基本上是我对编程的兴趣促使我经常去做，所以我获得了那种技能。所以，我想如果你对那类东西感兴趣，你就会变得更擅长。
迈克尔：是的，这是你的全职工作吗？
迈克：不。Park.io？
迈克尔：是的。
迈克：不，是个副业。
迈克尔：能问一下你的全职工作是什么吗？
迈克：是的，我共同创立了WizeHive.com。它是一家软件即服务企业。
迈克尔：WizeHive提供什么？
迈克：它基本上就像一个在线数据库解决方案平台，你可以接收大量数据，并基于这些数据做决策。所以，是的，它一直进展得不错。我已经做了大概六年了，所以发展得不错。
迈克尔：哇。你们在WizeHive有很多客户吗？它比Park.io大吗？
迈克：是的。是的， definitely。
迈克尔：据我所知，你在WizeHive的角色是首席技术官。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，你在日常工作中也像在Park.io一样，卷起袖子 actually 做编码和架构。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：酷。我试图自己了解WizeHive是什么，我不确定是记者们在2009年无法理解你们提供的东西，还是你们的业务自2009年以来 actually 改变了模式。在2009年，TechCrunch说你们是一个群组消息和任务管理应用，像Yammer或Present.ly。然后，在2013年，我读到你们配置和部署基于云的产品，帮助公司组织、自动化和简化其业务活动。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：这两个描述之间似乎有差异。
迈克：是的，我们有点 pivoted，因为我们发现这样做似乎有更多的兴趣和更大的实用性。利用我们所拥有的，即协作理念，并将其用于聚焦和围绕数据进行更多协作，使其更侧重于数据及其背后的流程。
迈克尔：是的，酷。了解了你的CTO背景以及你对域名及其价值的理解，我认识的大多数域名投资者会喜欢和你这样的人合作，一个技术专家，一个程序员。对于那些不懂技术，但拥有好域名和好商业想法，并且想将一个或多个域名发展起来的投资者，你有什么建议？
迈克：是的，我不知道。这对我来说有点难说，因为我来自另一面，但我想我的建议是要么找一个更懂技术的人合作，找一个他们信任并能一起工作的人，以这种方式合作作为平衡，提供不同的技能组合，或者可能通过雇佣的方式。雇佣一个开发者，试着那样工作。我想这就是我的建议。
迈克尔：Hacker News上到处都是程序员，他们会在那里评估事物，但认识新人很难。有什么特定的聚会你会推荐域名投资者去参加，尝试结识更多黑客社区的人吗？投资者如何结识像你这样的人？
迈克：这是个好问题。我 online 结识了很多人。例如，你。所以，我认为试着在黑客出没的地方闲逛，和他们开始对话，去了解。即使只是上Hacker News，参与那里的讨论，感受一下那里不同的人，接触不同的人。
迈克尔：酷。所以，看起来WizeHive是一个 fantastic 的应用程序，Park.io也是一个 fantastic 的应用程序。看起来你在这里战绩辉煌，迈克。你有没有开发过没有成功的应用程序？
迈克：有的。是的，很多次。
迈克尔：你 immediately 想到的一个是什么？
迈克：嗯，我做过一个网站，你可以输入一封电子邮件，然后我们会手写。你付一小笔费用，我们会手写一封信然后寄给某人。我和一个朋友试着做了一段时间，但没有 really 成功。我们确实引起了一些关注，比如 Pee-wee Herman 发推文提到过它。
迈克尔：你为那个服务选的域名是什么？
迈克：actually 我们用的是 Letters.io。
迈克尔：Letters.io。
迈克：是的，但之后我让它过期了。
迈克尔：看，它太好了。你得在信封里放点 glitter 让人们到处撒。是这个问题吗？你太好了。
迈克：我不知道。我不知道问题出在哪里，但我认为尝试很多事情是个好主意，如果不行，不要坚持太久。我试着给事情三个月时间。如果三个月后你没有看到起色，那就放弃，继续下一件事。
迈克尔：三个月。那似乎不算很长时间。
迈克：是的，我猜。我不知道。
迈克尔：尝试很多事情，你是这个意思。
迈克：我猜是这样。也许如果有些东西我感觉更强烈，我会尝试更长时间。
迈克尔：是的。你如何判断一项新服务，我们姑且这么叫，是否获得了 traction？比如，你如何判断Park.io是你应该保留的，而Letter.io是你决定关闭的？
迈克：是的，这是个好问题。嗯，基本上情况是我甚至没有推广Park.io。我把它上线，然后突然就有了订单。我甚至还没告诉任何人，就有了订单，这 immediately 是一个迹象，表明人们正在下单，这是一项有需求的服务。如果人们愿意为你的服务付费，你就知道它是有价值的。持续地，月复一月，如果他们愿意这么做，那么我认为你就有了一个想法，它在提供某种价值。
迈克尔：是的，好建议。你拥有的一个你 just love 并希望有时间去发展的域名是什么？
迈克：很多。我有很多想法，我很乐意去发展。我想这是我的一个问题；我很多时候 just really 想继续做下一件事。我喜欢Auction.io，以及我在Park.io上围绕拍卖所做的工作，我认为在Auction.io上提供一个API会非常酷。一个拍卖平台或API，让人们可以很容易地通过使用API在他们自己的网站上自己拍卖东西。
迈克尔：是的，那会很酷。他们安装一个插件，比如一个连接到你的架构的WordPress插件，然后勾选他们想要的功能，比如它有”立即购买”价格，或者它有这个功能那个特性，然后它就上线了。那会很棒。你应该做那个。
好的，如果你对迈克还有问题，请在Domain Sherpa上这个视频下方的评论中贴出来，我会请他回来尽可能多地回答。我鼓励你，正在观看这个采访的人，从电脑后面走出来，去接触行业中、其他行业你认为对你有帮助的人。就像迈克说的，如果你想找到一个人可能成为你新业务的合作伙伴，推出新业务，你必须开始认识人，建立联系。
你只需从发评论开始，说谢谢迈克，或者我很感激你分享你的故事和描述你的服务。无论你想说什么，就从发评论开始吧。我将第一个感谢迈克。
迈克·卡森，谢谢你来到Domain Sherpa节目，分享你的抢注服务Park.io的内部运作，谢谢作为他人的域名夏尔巴人。
迈克：是的，谢谢你邀请我上节目。
迈克尔：谢谢大家的观看。我们下次再见。
原文：http://www.domainsherpa.com/mike-carson-parkio-interview/
标题：Mike Carson Park.io Interview
On today’s DomainSherpa show, I interview the founder of a drop catching service that focuses on .IO, .LY and .ME top-level domains. Why do I think it’s worth your time as an investor? Because I picked up a .IO domain for $1,655 and in 30 days flipped it for $6,000. Stay tuned.
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Michael Cyger: Hey everyone. My name is Michael Cyger, and I’m the Publisher of DomainSherpa.com – the website where you can learn how to become a successful domain name investor or entrepreneur directly from the experts. I cannot remember how I stumbled across the drop-catching service we are going to learn about today, but I picked up a domain name for 1655 dollars that I thought would do well selling on the mostly technology-oriented marketplace called Flippa.com.
The domain name was PHP.io, and if you know anything about programming, you know that PHP is by far the most common server side language on the Internet. It used by Facebook, by WordPress, by Amazon, so it is not surprising that I flipped that domain name for six thousand dollars in 30 days and a profit, after broker’s fees, of about 3450 bucks or 200 percent over my initial investment.
And I am going to let you in on my secret, even though it pains me to do so because I will likely never get another deal on the drop-catching service again when you start going there. Today I am pleased to welcome the Founder of Park.io, Mike Carson. Welcome to the show, Mike.
Mike Carson: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Michael: So, I am going to ask you, Mike, to share your screen and walk us through the Park.io service, but I first want to understand a little bit more about the background of Park.io. Why did you build Park.io?
Mike: Well, I have always been into technology and launching sites, and so I tried to get some .IO domains and I was really vigilant around it. And I was watching it and watching it, and I even had a script checking it, but still somebody else beat me and they got the domain that I wanted. And it is really frustrating, and so what I did is I just learned more about it. I wanted to figure it out, and then I figured out more about it, when they drop, what time they drop, which ones are dropping, and then I got into the whole thing.
I started writing scripts around it and it got more competitive. I figured out there was a couple other people out there who were also doing it, and so we were competing with each other and my scripts improved and improved, and they got to a point where they were beating everyone. And so, at that point, I thought I might as well open this up because there were no other .IO backorder services out there, so I decided to open it.
Michael: Right. And so, why .IO? First of all, what is .IO, for anybody that does not know what it is?
Mike: .IO stands I guess for Indian Ocean, but for hackers it is input-output. I mean basically that is what it is about. It is .IO. We, hackers, see it as input-output, and a lot of tech companies, like I read Hacker News all the time and a lot of the sites that are going up there, a lot of the other computer programmers who are launching sites are doing .IOs. So, yeah, it stands for Indian Ocean and I think it is run by the British Government, but yeah, it is input-output.
Michael: Okay, so it is a country code top-level domain for the Indian Ocean and underlying whatever.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: And hackers like it, and you mentioned Hacker News, and I used to read Hacker News pretty regularly at News.Ycombinator.com. When you say hackers, how do you describe hackers in a sentence?
Mike: In a sentence. Well, hacker is just somebody who loves to figure things out and build things. That is how I see it.
Michael: Programming things, right, like services or offerings through a website.
Mike: Usually, it does not have to be. I mean electronics. There could be electronics hackers or other types.
Michael: Okay, great. And a lot of the hackers see the .IO and they have just, over the years, sort of affinitized towards that. They see a lot of their hacker friends using .IO, so then they want to pick up a .IO as well.
Mike: Yeah, and now there is a meaning behind it. Now .IO has a culture behind it. And when you see a .IO domain name, at least when I do and other people, it is like we know a little bit more about what it is about before we even go to it, and that is where I think a lot of the value is coming from it too, this whole momentum behind it and the culture behind it.
Michael: Well, that is a great point, and this momentum behind it was not created by a new top-level domain that has just been launched, like the hundreds of new top-level domains. This is one that has been out for a while. A quick side note, what do you think about all these new top-level domains, like .APP, which is going to be launched in 2015, .STORE, .WEB – you name it?
Mike: Yeah, I do not really know. Personally, what I think is they need to have success. If there is a successful company built on these domains and people have role model or it starts to develop a culture around the TLD, then I think people will gravitate towards that for that reason. That is why I think .IO domains. There is a whole culture behind it, and so there is value from that. And I think if they can do that, which I think needs to be led by people building products on those TLDs, then they will have value that way. That is my opinion, but I do not know that much. I mean I have only been in domains for like one year.
Michael: For just one year?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: That is when you first started writing this script, before you commercialized it and offered it to others. You have only been doing this for about one year.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: When did you launch the Park.io service?
Mike: It was just last June, the end of June of last year.
Michael: June 2014. Wow, okay. And what top-level domains will you try and drop-catch for people.
Mike: Right now, on Park.io, we do .IO, .LY, and .ME.
Michael: Okay, and .LY is the country code top-level domain for Lichtenstein, I think, or Libya.
Mike: Libya.
Michael: Libya. And .ME is the country code top-level domain for another country.
Mike: Montenegro, yeah.
Michael: Right. So, why country code top-level domains? What drove you to these three to first launch the service?
Mike: I mean they are all around basically the culture. So, .IO is kind of a domain. It is input-output. We have kind of changed the TLD to mean input-out, and .LY is used for domain hacks. For example, Bold.ly or Local.ly sold for like one hundred thousand dollars. So, you can create these cool hacks and it does not really mean. Libya is kind of not as important as the hacks that you can make around it, and the same with .ME too. I guess it is just the things that I am interested in because you can create the hacks with the names around it.
And also, there were not any backorder services for .LY or .IO, so I created it to provide a service for that.
Michael: Cool. So, if I go to Park.io today and I want to create a backorder for one of the .IOs, and we will see exactly how it works, how much does your service cost?
Mike: Well, it does not cost anything to place an order and you are only charged if you get the domain. So, if you place a backorder for a domain and we get the domain for you, and you are the only person that placed the backorder, it is a 99-dollar fee. If another person places a backorder also, then it goes into a ten-day public auction.
Michael: Ten-day public auction and anybody who is signed up for Park.io can participate in that auction.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. All right. And I have see 99 dollars if I am the only one that sees the domain name going to auction and places a bid. That is not too much of a profit for you because if I go to Nic.io and I see .IO, the registry for .IO, it is going to cost me 60 pounds, based in the United States, to register a .IO domain name, which is about 90 dollars.
Mike: Yeah, there is a small fee if it is only one, but a lot of the profit comes from the auctions.
Michael: Right, and so basically you are going to go out and grab the domain name if there is one or more bidders, and then you grab it for regular registration fee and then you are opening up to whoever wants to bid on it. The market value will be determined at that point.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Got it. All right. What is the most expensive domain that you have sold in auction through your service, that your service was able to catch quickly and then sell?
Mike: It was SMTP.io. There were a few people. I guess people were watching. So, what we do is – well, when I say we, I just mean me. I do that all the time. I do not know. Once you become a website, you start referring to yourself as we, but anyway. When Park.io gets a domain, we change the DNS to redirect to Park.io. So, for example, SMTP.io. When we got that, we redirected to the auction page, and so that is how a lot of people find Park.io. They are looking at SMTP.io because they wanted to register it when it was dropping, and when we got it, they saw, and so they go to the auction and start bidding on it.
There was quite a few companies that wanted SMTP.io and it ended up SendGrid had got it for 6,385 dollars or something like that.
Michael: And SMTP is a technical acronym. What does it stand for?
Mike: Good question.
Michael: Come on, Mike. You can do it.
Mike: Something mail protocol.
Michael: Mail transfer protocol. I do not know what the S is either, but yeah, if you ever setup your iPhone and you want to connect it to your mail server, you need to enter in either pop servers or SMTP servers, something technical.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, some companies really wanted it and SendGrid, a large software as a service provider, actually picked up.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Nice. And so, you actually wrote the script yourself. You are not just the guy that had this idea. Hey, there are no drop-catching services. I am going to start on and go hire a programmer to build it. You are the business owner and you are the programmer.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Wow.
Mike: Yeah, the whole reason I got into it was because I was interested in how it all worked and figuring out the most efficient way to get a domain the instant that it drops. And I think the only way you can really do something is that way. I mean this is just my opinion, but I feel like if I just hired a programmer, they would not have the enthusiasm behind it to make it as good as it is. I am proud of this script because it works so well. So, for the first six months, I launched in June and through December, we had got one hundred percent. One hundred percent of it is perfect. Every single .IO domain that was ordered on Park.io, and this was hundreds of orders, we got. Nobody could beat us.
Michael: Wow.
Mike: And the reason it got so good is because I was just really interested and also it is competitive. Before, months before, there was somebody who every once in a while would beat me.
Michael: Yeah, I can attest to that. I think I have purchased four or five domain names through your service and every single one has been caught. In most cases, I was the only bidder, which probably does not say much about my investing skills, but then some of them that you did catch go to auction and I won them for more. So, yeah, I will attest to that. Do you find that most of your customers, most of the registered users of Park.io are investors, or do you find a lot of end users who have discovered .IO, a lot of hackers who have discovered .IO and figured out that Park.io is the best catcher of those expiring names?
Mike: I think it is mostly domain investors. Those are the regular users because honestly it is a way to get discount domains and sell them for more. And I know a lot of users even get them for 99 dollars and then sell them for thousands, but every once in a while, like I said, I redirect the domain to Park.io, so some end users who are looking for that specific domain find Park.io through that way.
Michael: Yeah. Do you track domains that you catch at Drop.io because an investor or user wanted to pay you to catch it, and then track them to find out what they sell for later on?
Mike: I mean I am active on Flippa, so I watch that a lot, and also I keep in touch with some of the users and they tell me. Actually on the blog I post a lot of success stories about people who have flipped it.
Michael: Cool. What is the range that great .IO domains typically go for on Flippa?
Mike: Well, it is increasing. I mean I think, just like one year ago, there were not many .IO domains on Flippa and now it is getting pretty, but I still think there is a lot of potential for growth. I mean I think right now the highest ones on Flippa are going for – I think SEO.io went for 11 thousand. But if you look at some of the sales history of .IO domains, there have been a few for like 30 to 40 thousand, but then it is mostly like five to ten thousand.
Michael: So, SEO.io was actually mine, but I did not buy it through your service. They are definitely heating up. So, anywhere from registration fee, up to ten thousand dollars you would say is the range for .IOs right now.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: For good .IOs, not like CoffeeMug.io. That is not going to sell on Flippa, right?
Mike: Yeah. I mean it seems that way. I guess for people who are willing to sell right now. If you want to hold, I bet you can get something later on, but it seems right now the things that are selling are going for around that.
Michael: Yeah. What about the .LY and .ME domain names? Do you see those picking up and gaining steam and selling for a few thousand dollars on Flippa as well?
Mike: .LY definitely has a lot of interest. I do not think they have the buzz right now that .IO does, but still they are selling pretty well I think. I mean I have seen a lot and I have personally sold some pretty well. But .ME I do not see as much interest as I have with the .LY and .IO, but maybe it is because I do not have as many good ones or I have not seen as many good ones sell on Flippa, but I just do not see as much interest now as I do for the other ones.
Michael: And you mentioned that hackers were interested in .IOs. Is that who you see actually paying the retail market price for the .IOs and the .LYs today? People that want to develop them out into businesses.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean a lot of people see the culture behind it, and so they want to launch their product inside of that.
Michael: Cool. All right, let’s do this. Let’s flip to conversation, start screen sharing, and then I am going to do a screen capture as you walk us through the Park.io service.
Mike: Okay, sure, sounds good. Can you see it?
Michael: I can. Yeah, perfect.
Mike: Okay. So, yeah, when you come to Park.io, we show a list of the domains that are dropping in the next week.
Michael: Hey Mike, before we get into that, let me clarify the URL in the address bar is Park.io.dev. That is your development server. If people go to Park.io, they will see your homepage, which describes the service. And if they want to get access to the application, it is at App.Park.io. So, those are the two URLs. Park.io and then App.Park.io.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. And when somebody goes there, regardless of whether they are signed in or not, this is what they see on the app homepage.
Mike: Yeah, it shows a list of the domains dropping in the next week, starting with the ones that are dropping tonight. And then there are different tabs, so it starts with .IO domains, but you can switch to .LY or .ME. So, if you want to buy a domain, you just click on it.
Michael: There we go. I just got nervous for a second there for you.
Mike: There are some development things. So, first, you have to sign up, so you just create a username and password, and then agree to our terms of service. You should click to read those.
Michael: What am I agreeing to there, Mike? It just says that I am going to buy what I say I am going to buy or something.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I guess.
Michael: All right, go read the terms of service. And then, when you come here and you find a domain name that you want to buy, you click on it or click the view.
Mike: Yeah, and then you click on backorder domain. And you have to enter a credit card. Now, you are not going to be charged unless we get the domain for you, but you have to enter it just to secure the domain. So, you will type in your name here, email address, and then this is just a test card number. So, then you just click to backorder the domain, and then it goes into your orders. So, it is there, and then when you are logged in, you can click up here in the orders tab to see the status of your order. And over here you can view the order.
Michael: And when does this one actually drop that your script would try and grab it?
Mike: Well, this is my development service, so this one might have been renewed, but it would have dropped today. Probably today.
Michael: Got you.
Mike: So, you would check later tonight or tomorrow to see if we got that for you.
Michael: Okay, and your system will send an email if you are able to grab it as well.
Mike: Yeah, it will send an email once we update the order.
Michael: Is there any way for me to know if somebody else has already placed a backorder on a domain name, Mike?
Mike: No, there is not.
Michael: And why do you do that?
Mike: I do not know actually. I guess this is just the way. Yeah, I do not know.
Michael: At some point you just decided that hey, you have got to have a good idea for these domain names, and if you cannot spot the ones, then somebody else should benefit with not necessarily having to go to auction.
Mike: I guess maybe one of my concern was that maybe somebody would see the domain about to drop, and if they did not see any other backorders, but they wanted it, they may not try to backorder it themselves and get it themselves.
Michael: Oh, right. Okay. All right, so let’s click on that domain link at the top again. So, basically there are sub-tabs that allow you to look at the next, I think you said, ten days of dropping domain names on each of those tabs.
Mike: Yeah, so you can page through here and look at all of the different domains that are dropping in the next week.
Michael: Okay. So, look over this page right here, the .IO ones that are dropping on February 2nd. Which one of these do you think, and these will already have dropped by the time this interview airs, but which one of these domain names do you think would sell well on Flippa, sell for more than the 99 dollars assuming there was only one person that put in a bid?
Mike: Well, personally, I think Sonic sounds like a nice one. Intuitive probably sounds good, but I mean there is no science behind this. It is just based on my experience from selling .IO domains and also seeing products that are launched. I mean it has to do with like the brandability of it and just how it sounds really and what it means behind it.
Michael: So, you will actually buy brandables in the .IO extension, whereas a couple of the domains that I have sold on Flippa were short descriptives like SEO for search engine optimization or PHP for the software language. Do you recommend one way of investing over another, because I know you have done some investment yourself?
Mike: Well, like I said, I am kind of new to all of this, but I have sold a lot of .IO domains and I have done a lot with .IO domains, and I actually wrote this program that appraised .IO domains, and I think it works pretty well. I am planning to launch this as a service for Park.io, so you can type in a .IO domain and it will appraise it, and it is specific to .IO. I think it does the most accurate appraisal out of anything I have seen, any other services on the Internet for .IO domains.
Michael: Yeah, interesting.
Mike: And I use this for myself when I am pricing a domain for sale or when I am considering to buy a domain. I look at it to see.
Michael: All right, I need access to that script, Mike, so yeah, let’s get it up.
Mike: Okay.
Michael: All right, so that is the domain section. We talked about the orders section. What is the auction section?
Mike: So, yeah, this is where domains go if more than one person backordered them, and then they go to a ten-day public auction and anybody can bid on them. So, there is a list of auctions. If you go to the Park.io site, you will see a list of the current auctions. And if you sign up for our email newsletter, every week you get an email with the auctions that are currently going on.
Michael: Got you. Now, I actually enjoy your newsletters, Mike, but I do not think that they come every week. Are those manual newsletters you are sending out or are they automated to go out every week?
Mike: They are automated.
Michael: All right, I need to check my spam folder then. So, this is an example auction. If I click on it, I can see the current bid, I can see the number of bids, and then I can put in a bid myself.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: It is a nice, simple system. I love the fact that you have built this for simplicity and it is going to look and operate the same on my phone as it does on the website. A lot of times the website is cluttered with a whole bunch of stuff, and then you have to go to the mobile version to get access to the simplicity, but you have done a nice job on this.
Mike: Thanks.
Michael: And so, I notice on NameJet and other services that you actually have to have a bid in the auction in order to be a part of the private auction, which takes place after. Why did you decide to make it an open auction if there is more than one bid?
Mike: These are good questions, but I do not have good answers for a lot of them because I put it up. A lot of the idea behind launching a site is you just put something up there that works and then, based on feedback and how things go, you can change things, and so I just put this up as it was and it seems to work okay so far.
Michael: Okay, great. And if people do sign up for your service and become customers and buy domains and have feedback for you, what is the best way to provide that feedback?
Mike: Well, you can email [email protected] or [email protected].
Michael: And you do all of the support I have noticed from my interaction.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Which has been really fast actually.
Mike: Thanks.
Michael: For somebody that has another job, which I am going to ask you about. So, the last thing that I want to ask you about is once I win a domain name on your service, how do I go about setting the name server, setting a forward, getting the authorization code – the things that investors and entrepreneurs typically need to gain access and use the domain name?
Mike: Yeah, once you successfully get a domain name, then you can go to the orders tab and the order will show up as green now that you have it and it will have the paid date and total there. And when you click to view it, inside here will be different options for updating the DNS. So, you can update the name servers. There are some other options. I mean a lot of it is really geared towards domain investors, like you can set a TXT record if you want to verify it or you can a URL redirect. And then also if you want to transfer to another registrar, you can get the transfer authorization code.
Michael: Great. And if I do not want to transfer it, because your service is so simple and easy to use, can I actually renew domain names and keep them on Park.io?
Mike: Yeah, we are going to make that available. Like I said, we just launched this in June, so that has not really come up yet. It will not come up for another five or six months, but yeah, I am going to make some options available for that.
Michael: Great. Any idea what the pricing is going to be? If it costs me 99 dollars to grab it, what will a renewal be?
Mike: I am not sure yet. I still have to figure that out, but it will not be any more than that.
Michael: Okay. And if I buy a domain name and then I want to push it to a new owner because I, let’s say, sold it, is there a way to do that on Park.io?
Mike: Yeah, right now you can just email me and I can take care of it.
Michael: [email protected].
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Awesome, and it was very easy when I did that, so I appreciate that. I assume that if enough people ask you, you will create a way to do that.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, basically.
Michael: Very cool. All right, is there anything else on the website that you think we should take a look at?
Mike: I do not think so. I mean the blog. There are some interesting stories. And just to point out, the email newsletter. You have to go to the Park.io webpage and scroll to the bottom and enter your email here, and this will sign you up for the newsletter that comes out every week. And it has updates on auctions and also different updates from the blog and stuff.
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Michael: Cool. All right, I am going to go back and re-subscribe to that, because I thought I got it in the past, but then it did not show up with regularity.
Mike: Okay.
Michael: All right, so you can go ahead and turn off screen sharing, so I see you again. Awesome. All right, so we walked through the service and details, so everybody gets an idea of how that works. You had mentioned before we did the tutorial, Mike, that you actually wanted to grab .IOs yourself and then use them, and it is through optimizing the script that you decided hey, I can make it available to other people as well. How many .IOs did you grab in the past year plus in writing this script?
Mike: I do not know. Hundreds.
Michael: Hundreds?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Wow. And have you sold most of those, or what do you do with them?
Mike: I have a lot of them still. I have sold a lot of them also. So, yeah, I am selling them as I go, but yeah, it has been fun. It is interesting because it started out just as a hobby, and it is kind of a hobby, but then suddenly like within a few months of writing the script, I had kind of like cornered the market, like dropping .IO domains, and to such a level that people started complaining that they did not think it was fair. They were complaining to the registry and said that they did not think it was fair, like there was some cheating involved or something, but I mean it was all first come, first serve. It was just that the script was designed in a way that was really fast. But anyway, that is what made Nic.io eventually make their own backorder service.
Michael: So, let me ask you about that. So, Nic.io is the registry for the .IO top-level domain. You can go there and look at their site and see that they have recently just offered a drop-catching service. I believe the way the service works, Mike, is that I can pay 50 dollars. Let’s say I like SMTP.io, the domain that SendGrid just picked up through your service for six thousand dollars. Let’s say I really like that and I want to be first in line when that expires and I want to catch it. I could sign up for your service. Well, no, I actually cannot even sign up for your service to grab that because yours is only domains that are definitely set to expire in the next ten days.
But if I go to Nic.io, I can pay 50 dollars and they will monitor it and I will be the first in line when it does expire, but it may never expire. Is that your understanding as well?
Mike: Yeah, you have to pay upfront 60 pounds.
Michael: 60 pounds.
Mike: Yeah, and that is for a two-year backorder, which yeah, you may never get it, but you have to pay for it.
Michael: Yeah, that seems really high. 60 pounds. 90 dollars for something that may never expire.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: At least at Pool.com, where I used to grab domain names before I even realized there was a whole investing world out there, just from my own entrepreneurial activities, at least there I could transfer to another domain and if it did not get picked up, I could use it some other way. There was a time limit I believe on it as well, but yeah, that is interesting. So, they created that. I assume that if a domain name is expiring and I put in the backorder at Nic.io, because they own the game, they will probably beat out your drop-catching service.
Mike: Yeah, it is guaranteed. It is interesting because that just happens, so I have had to figure out what to do, and so what I have been doing is I have been backordering myself through their service and then putting it through Park.io, or just orders that drop regularly, then they can still be ordered in the same way.
Michael: And will they take more than one backorder at Nic.io, like you do at Park.io?
Mike: No.
Michael: No, just one.
Mike: First come, first serve, yeah.
Michael: Got you. All right. So, you have backordered a ton of great domain names. Actually I discovered you were on Flippa, selling domain names because I was tracking .IOs because I was selling some of the .IOs and then I realized hey, this is the guy that I have been emailing with. And you have got a ton of great .IOs listed for sale on Flippa and somebody can go look at your profile there. It is open to the public.
You have got a lot of two-letter .IOs. How much do you generally think those are worth?
Mike: Well, ES.io recently sold, last year, for 30 thousand dollars, but I mean I, personally, will not sell one of them for less than two thousand dollars, and that is for the ones with the worst letters or something. But I mean I collect them. I love them. I mean for me, it is just that they are so short. It is a two-letter TLD and two letters, so it is as short as the shortest .COM possible, four characters in total. I do not know.
Michael: It is funny that you collect it because they are not as cheap to collect as like a .COM, right? .COM, you are only paying around ten dollars per year for them, whereas .IO, one of the cheapest registrars is charging 36 dollars per year.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: And Nic.io, if you have it directly with them, will charge you 90 dollars per year. Now, I know they have volume discounts, but still they are pretty expensive.
Mike: Yeah, but I mean they do make up for it. The sales for .IOs are pretty good. Even though they are expensive, I think it easily pays for itself.
Michael: Yeah. So, you said the .IO market was heating up. Do you think that it has a potential to cool off? Do you think hackers will become tired of .IO at some point and stop using them?
Mike: Well, I mean anything can happen. On the Internet things change, and so I do not think it is something that would change fast, so I think there would be some warning signs ahead of time. Right now it is going up, so I think the trend will just continue going up until it starts going down, but I think there will be warning signs ahead of time. But yeah, I mean things change. Who knows what the Internet is going to be like?
Michael: What do you think one of the warning signs would be?
Mike: Well, there are a couple that come to my mind. I mean, on Hacker News, if you stop seeing .IO services listed there with such frequency, if the frequency goes down or on Flippa, if the sales go down, or even just personally, if you start getting less offers and stuff. So, I think there would be plenty of warning signs ahead of time, and I do not think it would be something that would happen overnight. It would take years probably for it to happen.
Michael: Yeah. Do you use your own service right now to catch and buy .IO domains?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: You do. Do you consider it a conflict of interest if you are bidding against me and I am on the system?
Mike: Well, we do not bid. I will only do it if there is a domain I really want, and I will not list it on Park.io, because that came up right at the beginning, when I launched it and I decided I am not going to bid in my own auction. So, I do not bid on the Park.io auctions, but if there is a domain that I really want, I just will not list it on Park.io.
Michael: Got you. All right. I was looking through ICANN’s accredited registrars because I wanted to figure out if Park.io was an accredited registrar, but it actually turns out you do not need to be accredited by ICANN for country code top-level domains. Is that correct?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah, so that is a great way to run a business, when you do not have to deal with the bureaucracy of ICANN.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I have looked into the ICANN accreditation because I have thought about getting into .COM or something, but I do not know. I just want to stick with the things that I am interested in right now.
Michael: Yeah. Hey Mike, there is no way I could come up with an idea like Park.io and then go on to Elance or Freelancer.com and try and hire somebody to program what you have done. The fact that you have written the script and then you have optimized it over time and really honed down to make it as quick as possible and as effective as possible is something that is unique to the Park.io system. How have you gained so much experience in programming? What has allowed you to create this service?
Mike: Well, I mean I have always been interested in programming. I have been programming since I was a kid, and so basically it is my interest in programming that has just led me to do it a lot, and so I gained that skill. So, I think if you have an interest in that stuff, then you get better at it.
Michael: Yeah, and is this your full-time job?
Mike: No. Park.io?
Michael: Yeah.
Mike: No, it is a side.
Michael: May I ask what your full-time job is?
Mike: Yeah, I Co-Founded WizeHive.com. It is a software as a service business.
Michael: And what does WizeHive provide?
Mike: It is basically like an online database solution platform, where you can intake a lot of data and make decisions based on this data. And so, yeah, it has been going pretty well. I have been working on it for the last six years or so, so it is doing well.
Michael: Wow. And do you have a lot of customers on WizeHive? Is it bigger than Park.io?
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Michael: And your role at WizeHive I understand is Chief Technology Officer.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So you roll up your sleeves and you actually do coding and architecture in your day job as you do on Park.io.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Cool. I tried to understand what WizeHive was myself and I am not sure if journalists could not understand what you were offering back in 2009 or if your business has actually changed the model since 2009. In 2009, TechCrunch said that you were a group messaging and task management app, like Yammer or Present.ly. And then, in 2013, I read that you configure and deploy cloud-based products that help companies organize, automate, and streamline their business activities.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: It seems like a difference between those two descriptions.
Mike: Yeah, we have pivoted a little bit because we found that there was more of an interest and more usefulness it seemed like in doing it. Taking what we had, the collaboration idea, and using that to focus and collaborating around data more and making it more about the data and the processes behind that.
Michael: Yeah, cool. Knowing your background as a CTO and your understanding of domain names and their value, most domain investors I know would love to work with somebody like you, a technologist, a programmer. What advice do you have an investors who are not technical, but have great domain names and a great business idea and they want to develop one or more of their domains out?
Mike: Yeah, I do not know. That is a little hard for me to say because I am coming from the other side of things, but I guess my advice would be to either find somebody that is more technical that they could partner with and somebody that they trust and can work with, and work with them that way as a balance, offering different sets of skills, or it may work where you could do some hiring. Just hire a developer and try to work that way. I guess that would be my suggestion.
Michael: And Hacker News is full of programmers that get on there and evaluate things, but it is tough to meet new people. Is there a certain meet-up that you would recommend that domainers go to, to try and meet more people in the hacker community? How can investors meet people like you?
Mike: It is a good question. I have met so many people just online. For example, you. And so, I think just try to hang out where hackers hang out and start up conversations with them, and just find out. Even just going on Hacker News and participating in the discussions there, and getting a feel for the different people there and reaching out to different ones there.
Michael: Cool. So, it seems like WizeHive is a fantastic application and it seems that Park.io is a fantastic application. It seems like you are batting a thousand here, Mike. Have you ever developed an application that did not take off?
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, a lot of times.
Michael: What is one that you remember offhand?
Mike: Well, I made this one website where you could type in like an email message and then we would handwrite. You would pay a small fee and then we would handwrite a letter and mail it out to somebody. So, I tried doing that with a friend for a little while and that did not really work. I mean we got some buzz around it, like Pee-wee Herman tweeted about it.
Michael: What was the domain you picked for that service?
Mike: Actually we were using Letters.io.
Michael: Letters.io.
Mike: Yeah, but since then I let it expire.
Michael: See, it is too nice. You have got to like put glitter in an envelope for people to spread it all over the place. Is that the problem? You were too nice.
Mike: I do not know. I do not know what the problem was with that, but I think it is a good idea to try a bunch of things, and if it does not work, do not stick with it too long. I try to give things three months. And if you are not seeing the traction after three months, then just drop it and move on to the next thing.
Michael: Three months. That does not seem like very much time.
Mike: Yeah, I guess. I do not know.
Michael: Try a lot of things is what you are saying.
Mike: I guess so. Maybe if there were something that I felt more strongly about, I would try longer.
Michael: Yeah. And how do you determine if a new service, let’s call it, that you are offering is getting traction? Like how did you determine that Park.io was one that you would keep versus Letter.io that you decided to close down?
Mike: Yeah, that is a good question. Well, basically what it was is I did not even launch Park.io. I put it up and then suddenly I had an order. I had an order without even telling anyone about it, and so that was a sign right there that suddenly people are placing orders that this was a service that was needed. And then if people are willing to pay you for your service, then you know that it is something. Consistently, month after month, if they are willing to do that, then I think that you have an idea that it is offering something of value.
Michael: Yeah, good advice. What is one domain that you own that you just love and wish you had time to develop?
Mike: A lot. There is a lot of ideas I have, and I would love to develop. I think that is a problem I have; is I just really want to move on to the next thing so many times. I like Auction.io and my work that I have done with auction stuff on Park.io, I think it would be really cool on Auction.io to have an API. A platform or an API for auctions, where people could easily auction things themselves on their own websites using an API.
Michael: Yeah, that would be cool. They install a plugin, like a WordPress plugin that hooks into your architecture, and they check off the things that they want, like it has got a buy it now price or it has got this functionality or that feature, and suddenly it is live. That would be awesome. You should do that one.
All right, if you have additional questions for Mike, please post them in the comments below this video on Domain Sherpa and I will ask him to come back and answer as many as he can. I encourage you, the person who is watching this interview, to get out from behind your computer, reach out to people in the industry, in other industries that you think would be beneficial to you. Just like Mike said, you have got to start meeting people and making connections if you want to find maybe somebody that can be your counterpart on a new business that you would like to get out and launch.
All you have to do is start by posting a comment that says thanks Mike or I appreciate you telling your story and describing your service. Whatever you feel like posting, just start by posting a comment. I am going to be the first to say thanks to Mike.
Mike Carson, thank you for coming on the Domain Sherpa Show, sharing the interworkings of your drop-catching service, Park.io, and thanks for being a Domain Sherpa for others.
Mike: Yeah, thanks for having me on the show.
Michael: Thank you all for watching. We’ll see you next time.